Tuesday, May 8, 2018

May 8th...This Day in History (V-E Day + others)

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V-E Day is celebrated in America and Britain 1945

On this day in 1945, both Great Britain and the United States
celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as
formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners,
rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine.

The eighth of May spelled the day when German troops throughout
Europe finally laid down their arms: In Prague, Germans surrendered to
their Soviet antagonists, after the latter had lost more than 8,000
soldiers, and the Germans considerably more; in Copenhagen and Oslo; at
Karlshorst, near Berlin; in northern Latvia; on the Channel Island of
Sark–the German surrender was realized in a final cease-fire. More
surrender documents were signed in Berlin and in eastern Germany.

The main concern of many German soldiers was to elude the grasp of
Soviet forces, to keep from being taken prisoner. About 1 million
Germans attempted a mass exodus to the West when the fighting in
Czechoslovakia ended, but were stopped by the Russians and taken
captive. The Russians took approximately 2 million prisoners in the
period just before and after the German surrender.

Meanwhile, more than 13,000 British POWs were released and sent back to Great Britain.

Pockets of German-Soviet confrontation would continue into the next
day. On May 9, the Soviets would lose 600 more soldiers in Silesia
before the Germans finally surrendered. Consequently, V-E Day was not
celebrated until the ninth in Moscow, with a radio broadcast salute from
Stalin himself: “The age-long struggle of the Slav nations…has ended in
victory. Your courage has defeated the Nazis. The war is over.”

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